'L' is for 'learner'...

...No really, it is... and why teaching my sister to drive is a hugely daunting task, and the choice of vehicle even more so.

My sister has just reached the ripe young age of 17 – which in South African terms means she has recently acquired a learners’ license.

This might seem run of the mill to most of us – but if you ponder the notion of this a little more you’ll understand how scary the idea is. My 17-year old sister, like many others her age, wants to pilot a ± 1 tonne mechanical object on a network of tarmac veins and arteries shared by a few million other road users.

She has absolutely no experience and no deep technological understanding of how much force a car at even 40km/h is carrying. She has little to no concept at all of the forces involved in making a car move, stop, or cling on to the surface of the road.

She’s quite literally a rolling accident waiting to happen – most new drivers are – so when tasked with teaching her how to not kill herself, and others, I needed the perfect vehicle to do so. This vehicle would either help craft her into a hopefully excellent driver, or scar her and scare her into being hesitant, unpredictable, and dangerous to everyone else on the road. No pressure then…

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